In recent years, ‘experience’ has become an over-used and ill-de!ned term in the creation of physical environments, particularly in the retail industry. Designers and clients realise that the spaces providing sales or services need to be more than purely functional. An Econsulting/Adobe survey of 2020 recorded that 86% of customers were willing to spend more for a great experience over price and product. In 2015 Gensler were asked by C&A, a long-established European retailer in a"ordable fashion, to design a new retail concept applicable to their 1,500 stores across 12 countries. Due to growing competition, the aim was to develop from a transactional retail model to a customer ‘experience’ focus. There was, however, little methodology available to guide the design decisions or to provide relevant criteria that would be appropriate to establishing a measurable outcome. This document describes the research carried out by the Gensler team, led by Jon Tollit, together with C&A during the design development process prior to implementation of the !rst stores. The process helped de!ne and in#uence the subsequent evolution of the Gensler Experience Index (ExI). The project incorporated Jon Tollit’s previous retail experience of over 30 years, which included: iconic Joseph stores in London during the 1980s, with Eva Jiricna Architects; the !rst Apple stores in the UK in the early 2000s; and strategic development with Selfridges post-2009 with Gensler, all of which were at the forefront of innovation in retail design at the time. Tollit’s career has shadowed the changing atmosphere of brand and customer interface in di"erent markets. He joined Gensler in 2001 speci!cally to build a multi-disciplinary studio to investigate and develop a broader understanding of this ‘people focused’ phenomenon, utilising the !rm’s global reach and active support of speci!c sector research, unusual in the design !eld at the time. Each project, in a rapid design and delivery industry, became a means of research and testing that would inform the subsequent project, providing relevant knowledge for future clients. Tollit became !rmwide Retail Practice Area leader at Gensler in 2008.
Tollit, Jon (Gensler)
School of Architecture
Year: 2020
© Gensler Published by Oxford Brookes UniversityAll rights reserved.